The ICC has announced the qualification pathway for the 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup to be played in USA and West Indies.
The ICC on Sunday (April 10) confirmed the qualification pathway for the 2024 edition of the men’s T20 World Cup. The governing body has outlined how the final 20 teams for the tournament will be decided, with a direct bye given to co-hosts USA and West Indies and greater context added to this year’s edition in Australia.
Top 8 teams at the 2022 T20 World Cup in October-November will qualify for the 2024 edition directly, alongside the two designated hosts and the two next-best placed sides in the T20I rankings as of November 14. The rest of the teams will be made-up through regional qualifiers in Asia, Europe, Africa, East Asia Pacific and the Americas.
If West Indies and USA are part of the top 8, the number of direct seedings decided for the World Cup via the rankings will be four; in case they are not, the number of teams to go through on ranking ladder will be two or three.
This means the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup in Australia is now of so much greater importance than it was for the previous edition of the tournament. Even if a team fails to make the cut for the semis, they will still have a lot to play for, with each of their fixture carrying context and value.
The ICC will finalise the top 8 seedings through the top 4 teams in the respective six-team groups of the Super 12 stage. Four of those places will be assigned to the sides that qualify for the semis, but finishing 3rd and 4th is now also no less an achievement and carries great weightage.
Given that ending 5th and 6th makes you go through the qualifiers unless you have a good enough ranking spot by the end of the event, each game part of the Super 12 stage at this year’s edition of the T20 World Cup will be keen followed and contested by teams.
This, a stark difference from the tournament’s previous edition played in UAE late last year where ICC had put too much emphasis on T20I rankings to decide the direct byes for the Super 12 stage of following iteration in Australia.
While all teams part of the Super 12 stage in UAE got the seeding for the event, those who made the final in Dubai or were the next highest-ranked six T20I teams combined to form the top 8 for the Australian World Cup.
The remaining four – West Indies, Sri Lanka, Namibia, Scotland – will have to go through the preliminary round against the top 4 teams from the global qualifier to regain their Super 12 spot.
As many as six places were decided through the rankings, when in an ideal scenario, teams that finished top 4 in their respective groups should’ve gotten the direct bye.
Now in a positive change, at a realistic rate, only three or possibly, just two places will be decided on the basis of rankings, which are always easy to manipulate.
The move is expected to keep the likes of West Indies, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka on their toes and encourage associate teams on the rise Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, and UAE among others as they can book their places for successive editions of the T20 World Cup with a top 8 finish.
Expanding to 20 teams from the 2024 edition, the T20 World Cup will have teams divided in 4 groups of 5 teams each, with top 2 in respective groups making the cut for the Super 8s. Teams who then finish top 2 in their respective four-team Super 8 groups will qualify for the semis.
Notably, USA have been given a direct bye for their first-ever T20 World Cup appearance at home. The move to offer a seeding to host nations shall excite Scotland and Ireland, who are due to co-host the 2030 edition of the T20 World Cup with England.
